A US soldier who goes on trial in absentia next week in Rome for murder caused a furore in Italy on Tue for defending his fatal shooting of an Italian intelligence agent in Iraq. Mario Lozano, of the US Army's 69th Infantry Regiment, is charged in Italy with voluntary homicide for killing Nicola Calipari as the agent was escorting a newly freed hostage, reporter Giuliana Sgrena, to Baghdad airport in 2005. Lozano broke his 2-year silence by telling a US newspaper in an interview published this week that he had no choice but to fire and "take them out." Lozano said Calipari's vehicle had come too close to the military checkpoint. "You have a warning line, you have a danger line, and you have a kill line," he was quoted as saying by the New York Post. "Anyone inside 100 meters is already in the danger zone ... and you gotta take them out," he said. "If you hesitate, you come home in a box -- and I didn't want to come home in a box. I did what any soldier would do in my position."... http://news.yahoo.com

Ethiopia's government has admitted that it detained 41 "terror suspects" who were captured in neighbouring Somalia. The ministry of foreign affairs said the detainees were from 17 countries including America, Canada and Sweden. It is the first time the government has admitted that it is holding the foreigners, defending the action as part of the "global war on terror". Ethiopia denied the detainees had been held incommunicado. It says five have been released, with 24 more to follow. US ally Some of the detainees were picked up in Somalia by Ethiopian troops fighting alongside Somalia's transitional government against a radical Islamist group at the end of last year. Others were deported from Kenya, where many Somalis have fled continued fighting. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6540627.stm

Chad's government has admitted that its forces crossed the border with Sudan, where it clashed with the army. A minister said Chadian soldiers were in "hot pursuit" of rebels who crossed the border and then came into contact with Sudanese soldiers. Sudan has condemned the raid, saying 17 soldiers were killed and has reportedly summoned the Chad ambassador. This is the first time the two armies have clashed after months of tension but Chad denies a deliberate attack. Eastern Chad and Darfur have a similar ethnic make-up and the two governments have swapped charges of backing rebels. Several peace deals have failed to ease the tension. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6542045.stm

A British woman left infertile after being treated for ovarian cancer has no right to frozen embryos against the wishes of her former fiance, who provided the sperm, the European Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday. The court's Grand Chamber, a panel of 17 European judges, confirmed a lower court ruling upholding a British law that stipulates consent from both parents is needed at every stage of the in vitro fertilization process. Tuesday's verdict cannot be appealed, and the frozen embryos will be destroyed. The court said it felt "great sympathy" for Natalie Evans, but ruled that her desire to become a parent should not be accorded greater weight than her former fiance's right not to have a genetically related child with her....http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=3026287

Australia will nearly double its military deployment in Afghanistan to about 1,000 soldiers by the middle of next year, Prime Minister John Howard announced Tuesday, warning that the troops may suffer casualties.Howard, a staunch U.S. ally on the war on terror, would not rule out sending even more than 1,000 troops if the need arose. He said that Afghanistan was becoming more dangerous and that the Australian public should prepare for possible casualties. Only one Australian soldier has been killed in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001."I should make it clear that all of the intelligence advice suggests that there is a heightened security risk," Howard said. "There is the distinct possibility of casualties and that should be understood and prepared for by the Australian public," he added....http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,265055,00.html

Two U.N. inspectors have arrived in Iran to visit its uranium enrichment plant, the authorities said Tuesday as Western governments and experts expressed dismay and skepticism over Iran's announcement that it is now enriching uranium in industrial quantities. "Two inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived in Tehran early Tuesday," the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported. An official of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization confirmed their arrival, and said the visit was "routine." The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media. Government leaders said Monday that Iran had reached industrial scale production of enriched uranium by the operation of 3,000 centrifuges, nearly 10 times as many as previously declared. The centrifuges are housed at the Natanz plant, which the IAEA inspectors are due to visit. The United States and the European Union protested ...http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-04-09-iran-nuclear_N.htm?csp=34